Do you really want them to turn it around?

Well yes, because it will make following the team this season bearable but does clawing its way into the playoffs this year actually help the franchise over the long term?

What's the ceiling for this year's team? They get blown out repeatedly, have a team meeting and barely beat the Wizards - I'm not very impressed.

Let's say they keep putting in an effort most nights and improve their historically-bad defense. Where are they in April? A 6-seed? Can they win 4 games against Boston, Cleveland, Orlando or Atlanta? I really don't think so. So that's another first-round exit. Does Bosh stay after that? Even if he does, aren't the Raps looking at the same story the next year and beyond? Good player but it feels like he's just going to stagnate in Toronto.

So a bottoming-out and long-term rebuild seems to me like something a good GM has to seriously consider. And by rebuild I mean 2-4 years of missing the playoffs, drafting well and developing young players. It will suck for the fans but might be the franchise's only means of rising above mediocrity.

Most teams who have been losing and living off the draft have not amounted to much. You have the Hawks and the Blazers who, this year, appear to be success stories... Most losers stay as losers and the Hawks and Blazers took a lot longer than 2-4 years of losing to find the right pieces in the lotto. I believe they had some luck because boths had a lot of "swing and a miss", I'm talking total busts. Also, haven't the Raptors been losing more season than they've been winning? Sorry, but I've been a Raptors fan from the get go. I've seen so many losers that it almost sickens me. Losing isn't the road to winning. No doubt drafting well is important but good teams like the Spurs have shown that great picks can be found well outside the lotto. The Raptors current team isn't winning but it has a lot of talent. I believe that one of the main problems of almost all Raptors teams has been coaching. Its pretty sad when the best coach this team has ever seen is a toss up between a NBA-wide blacklisted individual or the most losing coach in NBA history. This team has never had a great coach. Colangelo came in here trumpeting "I will build a winning culture" and he's missed one of the most important things year after year after year, finding a very good coach. Look, no doubt the Lakers and Spurs would be good without Phil or Pop BUT those two guys give them that "something else". They're men of integrity, they're intelligent men, they are well spoken, they have an expert feel on the psychology of the different players on their team. Every coach the Raptors have ever had has had a major flaw, I'm talking a flaw as big as the grand canyon. Respected, winning teams have strong coaches, its all there is to it. Colangelo never found true success in Phoenix until he found his strong coach. He won't build a team that makes it out of the first round until he find his strong coach. He won't bring a championship to Toronto until he finds his great coach.

Of course I want us to win, but rebuilding from scratch right now will make basketball in Toronto intolerable.

Look, the team that we have isn't crap. Are they underachieving right now? Absolutely. What they need is some tough love. And if that's something that Jay and Colangelo started doing alot more of since the Hawks loss, then I'd say it could be working. The talent is here, the guys just needed to wake up and realize that they can compete on a higher level for a full 48 minutes.